The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

Load of rubbish!!

As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Great documentary on the life of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans, who produced such classics as The Godfather (1 and 2), Love Story, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, as well as The Cotton Club and Marathon Man. Narrated by Evans himself and based on his autobiography, the movie gives a great insight into what happens behind the scenes in Hollywood, and how careers rise and fall. Some of the anecdotes and incidents are quite amazing.A must-see for anyone who is interested in the history of cinema, especially '70s cinema.

Womens fashions executive-turned-failed actor-turned movie studio chief Robert Evans remembers his life, perhaps narrating from his source autobiography in a tough-guy style filled with ego-inflated rhetoric and purple prose. Although Evans knows the movie business inside-out, and worked with or crossed paths with some of the biggest names of the 1960s and '70s, this film is about him...and he's not nearly as interesting as the celebrities who starred in his productions. Although mentioned as his friends, the personal troubles of Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson or Francis Ford Coppola are never mentioned--not even in passing, nor as a reflection on how their scandals may have had an effect on Evans' life. Redundant documentary is both sketchy and flabby; it has some interesting film clips and soundtrack choices, but it doesn't present a well-crafted overview of Tinsel Town. This is the Cliff's Notes version of Hollywood via Robert Evans, Big Shot. ** from ****

When Robert Evans climbed out of a pool while on a business trip he got offered an acting role alongside James Cagney. After this he had a few more appearances as an actor until the well ran dry. An experience with a powerful producer convinced him that that was what he wanted to be – the man behind the man. Buying the rights to the book The Detective was the first step on a career that would see him produce some of the most famous films of the 1970's.I haven't read the book from which this film came but like the majority of people I have seen plenty of the films that Robert Evans was responsible for bringing to the screen. His story is interesting and although it was a risk to have Evans himself tell it, it worked here. Essentially we have Evans talking through his story over stock footage, old photographs and new images. This is the only real weaknesses that I felt the film had – it needs the story telling to be totally engaging because, when it isn't, there isn't anything particularly on the screen to cover for it. The photos are animated well and the images flow nicely (rather than being static shots) and the clips are used rather than just shown. However the main engine here is Evans' story and his telling.For a wider audience I could see why his story may not be of interest but personally it held my attention for the whole time. It had been nicely edited together so that it was never too brief but never stayed too long on any one thing or time. This kept the ego at bay and allowed the story to be told rather than wallowed in or celebrated (most of the time anyway). By the end of the film I felt like I had heard a good story and it had been interesting due to his integral involvement with some of the biggest films of the 1970's; I did have to wonder though why the end credits bothered to list his more recent successes as Sliver, Jade, The Saint and The Phantom – boasting that some of them broke $100 million was probably meant to make us think Evans was "back", however it just left me with the impression that his best days are about 20 years behind him now.Overall though this is an effective piece of story telling. The visual delivery helps by being neither dull nor distracting but doing enough to make this more than a radio show. Evans drives the film forward with the value of his story and the personal delivery of his narration. A strong film that fans of films of the period (which must be a large section of the users on this site) should check out.

It would be easy to criticise this documentary as a self-indulgent superficial exercise in egotism, but only if you choose the disengaged cynical view of the film. If you can alternatively sit back and enjoy an autobiographical Hollywood fairytale described by a seasoned storyteller who has been and there done it, who knows both the ugliness and the magic of movie-town, USA, you're in for a treat.The gloss, the glitz, the joy and self-recrimination, it's all seldom been so intimately communicated in film. Dismiss any notion that it's vapid story-light Entertainment Now celebrity pap and rent it out.8 out of 10.